ATLANTA -- The Tigers’ offense broke through late, backing a strong outing from Framber Valdez to rally past the Braves in their 5-2 comeback win Thursday afternoon at Truist Park.
Valdez continues to stabilize a Tigers rotation dealing with injuries, including Casey Mize landing on the IL on Wednesday. The 32-year-old delivered six innings, allowing two runs while striking out eight and issuing no walks.
“I just told myself to focus on having discipline in every pitch, because they are an aggressive team when it comes to batting, and making contact. It was simply about keeping them below the zone, trying for them to make as little damage as possible, like they did today and with my team, try to keep the bullpen healthy,” Valdez said in Spanish.
Valdez’s command marked a turnaround from his previous start in Cincinnati, when he issued five walks over 4 1/3 innings. The left-hander generated 21 whiffs (36.2% whiff rate) and retired the final 10 batters to end his outing.
Atlanta tested him early by squaring up his sinker, but Valdez and catcher Jake Rogers adjusted, leaning more heavily on the curveball and changeup to keep the Braves off balance.
“He kind of realized that sometimes it takes maybe a walk or something to go, ‘Hey, look I gotta dial it back in,’ When he trusts his stuff, he’s on, I mean, it's just so hard to hit,” Rogers said. “He has 20 inches of vertical movement on the curve ball, so just throw it in the zone … he did a great job.”
Valdez threw 99 pitches after his count climbed into the 60s through three innings, but he settled in by attacking the zone more efficiently over his final three frames.
“I used the changeup, and used the curve a lot along with my cutter. I only threw the sinker to show it. I stayed with the cutter down to get strikeouts and groundouts,” Valdez said.
Detroit’s offense was quiet early, but began to chip away in the sixth. Matt Vierling singled on a fly ball to deep right field, scoring Riley Greene from second after he had worked a walk earlier in the inning.
The Tigers tied the game at 2 in the eighth, with Kerry Carpenter sparking the rally with a triple on a sharp fly ball to center. Vierling followed by lining a double into left on a 83 mph first-pitch sweeper.
Hao-Yu Lee then drew a walk from reliever Joel Payamps, prompting a pitching change as Atlanta turned to Aaron Bummer. With one out, Kevin McGonigle worked a walk to load the bases, and Vierling came home on a sacrifice fly by Gleyber Torres, giving Detroit its first lead of the day.
“We gave ourselves a ton of opportunities," manager A.J. Hinch said. "It felt like we had pressure on them every inning or most innings, and then we finally broke through a little bit and got in, got some back to back, good at bats with runners in scoring position, or guys on base."
After Detroit's first two hitters struck out to open the ninth, pinch-hitter Wenceel Pérez worked the team's seventh walk of the day (it had eight in total). Vierling followed with a ground-ball single to left field, and Pérez came all the way around to score, sliding home to extend Detroit’s lead.
“[Vierling] is [big] for us. He plays the game well, and balances and lengthens our lineup. He found himself up to bat at some crucial moments, got the ball through the left side, and hit the ball hard there at the end. This guy is key to this team because of the threat that he provides wherever I put him in the order, and he's holding down center field most nights so good player,” Hinch said.
Pinch-hitter Dillon Dingler had a double of his own to close out the inning when he hit a down-and-in 83.4 changeup into the far corner of left field, scoring Vierling from second.
“You just want as many chances as you can get to then break through, and then at the end, Wenceel at-bat with two outs and nobody on, for us to be able to put a couple runs in with some good at-bats with Verling and Ding made that ninth inning a lot more comfortable in this park against this team,” Hinch said.